“Children of Dune” perfectly portrays the struggle for political dominance and the destructive force of fanatical religion. The novel uses quotes to speak the mind of Frank Herbert on ecology, politics, religion, and family which are the four main themes. The book is also a pivotal story concluding Paul Atreides’s life.
Government and Power
Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class – whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.
Bene Gesserit Training Manual – Chapter 28
Context: The above statement is from a Bene Gesserit training book.
What the Quote Means: It explains the degradation of most government systems and shows how even the best political system takes a turn for the worse.
Why It Was Said: The statement explained to trainees the futility of politics and governments.
The quote above is a statement Frank Herbert uses in “Children of Dune” to describe the nature of many democratic governments. From his view, governments increasingly cater to the rich till they implode. Herbert’s “Dune” universe is a reflection of modern-day government. From his perspective, governments are not interested in improving people’s lives. Instead, they follow a pattern of catering wealth to a select few among the population. He also talks about how the rich steer the tides of politics and power.
Good governance never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.
Spacing Guild Manual on Law and Governance – Chapter 22
Context: This statement is an excerpt from a manual of the Spacing Guild called “Law and Governance.”
What the Quote Means: It explains that the most crucial part of any government is the system by which it chooses its leaders.
Why It Was Said: It was made to explain the relevance of choosing the right leaders.
In the quote above, Frank Herbert talks about how leaders affect the governance of states. From his ideology, a government can never be good if those who run it are of bad character. The quote shows how flawed the process of electing leaders into government is. From Frank’s perspective, there should be an intense method of choosing leaders to filter out the good from the bad.
One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp too strongly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim.
Jessica – Chapter 25
Context: Jessica explains the principles of power to Duncan Idaho.
What the Quote Means: It warns people of the dangers of becoming power intoxicated.
Why It Was Said: Jessica made the statement when she realized her daughter, Alia, had become power-hungry.
The quote explains power is a double-edged sword people should be careful with. Frank Herbert understood that greed is the primary reason for the creation of tyrants. He described power as a drug that gets one addicted and showed how that results in destruction and death.
The Stain of Religion and Belief
There are illusions of popular history which a successful religion must promote: Evil men never prosper; only the brave deserves the fair; honesty is the best policy; actions speak louder than words; virtue always triumphs; a good deed is its own reward; any bad human can be reformed; religious talismans protect one from demon possession; only females understand the ancient mysteries; the rich are doomed to unhappiness.
Missionaria Protectiva – Chapter 12
Context: The statement featured in the “Missionaria Protectiva,” a book that extensively guides the Bene Gesserit on religious indoctrination.
What the Quote Means: It explains the successful ingredients for creating a religion.
Why It Was Said: The Bene Gesserit controlled people by injecting their ideologies into religious systems. The statement above explains how to do that.
Frank Herbert disliked the control religion had over people’s minds. In the “Dune” series, he expressed disdain for how people mindlessly follow religion without questioning those at the top. Frank explained, through the Bene Gesserits’ words, that people fail to realize bad people never pay for their crimes because others trick them into believing bad people would suffer at the hands of an unseen force.
Religion is the emulation of the adult by the child. Religion is the encystment of past beliefs: mythology, which is guesswork, the hidden assumptions of trust in the universe, those pronouncements which men have made in search of personal power, all of it mingled with shreds of enlightenment. And always the ultimate unspoken commandment is ‘Thou shalt not question!’ But we question. We break that commandment as a matter of course. The work to which we have set ourselves is the liberating of the imagination, the harnessing of imagination to humankind’s deepest sense of creativity.
Ghanima – Chapter 44
Context: Ghanima recites the statement above when she accesses the memories of her ancestors.
What the Quote Means: It explains the deception behind religion.
Why It Was Said: The statement was made because Ghanima feared being overwhelmed by the past lives of her ancestors.
Frank Herbert uses this quote to explain the destructiveness and falsehood of religion. In the “Dune” series, the Fremen were a group whose ideologies and beliefs made them follow one man on a bloody campaign. In the end, 61 billion people lost their lives, and the same man they followed admitted he failed and only led them to a pointless rampage. Herbert explains that shared religious belief is a deadly weapon.
I will not argue with the Fremen claims that they are divinely inspired to transmit a religious revelation. It is their concurrent claim to ideological revelation which inspires me to shower them with derision. Of course, they make the dual claim in the hope that it will strengthen their mandarinate and help them to endure in a universe which finds them increasingly oppressive. It is in the name of all those oppressed people that I warn the Fremen: short-term expediency always fails in the long term.
The Preacher – Chapter 17
Context: the preacher speaks about the Fremen’s rule.
What the Quote Means: It mocks the Fremen and the Atreides’s Empire.
Why It Was Said: The Preacher was a critic of the mandarinate who talked against the Empire, its followers, and leader Alia Atreides.
After Paul’s rise to power, the Fremen Jihad led to death and destruction. After Paul entered the desert, a blind preacher arose to mock the Muad’Dib’s religion and Empire. He explained that the Fremen’s reign would end as people rose against their tyranny.
As with so many other religions, Muad’Dib’s Golden Elixir of Life degenerated into external wizardry. Its mystical signs became mere symbols for deeper psychological processes, and those processes, of course, ran wild. What they needed was a living god, and they didn’t have one, a situation which Muad’Dib’s son has corrected.
Saying Attributed to Lu Tung-Pin – Chapter 64
Context: The statement explains the destructiveness of Paul Atreides’s religion.
What the Quote Means: It explains how Paul’s religion violently changed into childish delusion.
Why It Was Said: It was made to explain how religions and belief systems plunge into madness.
“Children of Dune” portrays the negatives of religion, and this statement is one of those tools it uses. The novel showed how Paul Atreides’s religion sparked madness in the universe.
Knowledge
Knowing was a barrier which prevented learning. For a few moments he allowed himself merely to resonate, making no demands, asking no questions.
Leto II Atreides – Chapter 35
Context: Leto worries about the prospect of the Jacurutu being close to where he was.
What the Quote Means: It portrays the dangers of overthinking and explains how that could hinder learning.
Why It Was Said: Leto avoided the Jacurutu but soon fell into their trap.
Knowledge is powerful but can create a stiff environment that hampers change and evolution. Frank Herbert explained that relying on a particular knowledge as fact in the face of new evidence is a dangerous road no government or individual should take.
We can still remember the golden days before Heisenberg, who showed humans the walls enclosing our predestined arguments. The lives within me find this amusing. Knowledge, you see, has no uses without purpose, but purpose is what builds enclosing walls.
Leto II Atreides – Chapter 36
Context: Leto II Atreides reminisces about when humanity was yet to become interstellar.
What the Quote Means: It explains the power of knowledge and the restrictiveness of purpose.
Why It Was Said: Leto made this statement because he knew humanity had come a long way since the days of early physicists who sought knowledge for the sake of learning and nothing more.
The statement above explains that knowledge is a powerful tool that brings purpose, but when that purpose forms, restrictions around knowledge creep out, leading to degradation.
Conquering the Shadow
The child who refuses to travel in the father’s harness, this is the symbol of man’s most unique capability. I do not have to be what my father was. I do not have to obey my father’s rules or even believe everything he believed. It is my strength as a human that I can make my own choices of what to believe and what not to believe, of what to be and what not to be.
Leto II Atreides – Chapter 62
Context: Leto II Atreides talks about his father’s legacy.
What the Quote Means: It explains the distinctiveness of Leto’s actions.
Why It Was Said: Leto explained that he acted on his free will and could make his own decisions.
“Children of Dune” focuses on the story of those who came after Paul Atreides. Herbert uses the quote to explain a situation children of great people experience. He explains that the greatest wish for any child whose parent was great is to stand out of the shadow cast by their parent. Leto understood that he needed to break away from the shadow cast by his father, a man who became the most powerful Emperor.
The Fluidity of the Future
Abandon certainty! That’s life’s deepest command. That’s what life’s all about. We’re a probe into the unknown, into the uncertain. Why can’t you hear Muad’Dib? If certainty is knowing absolutely an absolute future, then that’s only death disguised! Such a future becomes now!
The Preacher – Chapter 33
Context: The preacher made this statement while addressing a crowd.
What the Quote Means: It explains that the future is uncertain and cannot be quantified.
Why It Was Said: The preacher made the statement mocking those who could see into the future.
The quote above explains that rigidity should not determine the future. The future is unknown, and minute events can create massive change; this quote talks about how one should be open to whatever comes their way. From the novel, Paul discovered that even after the Fremen jihad, many people still hold on to the rigid belief of the Muad’Dib; this greatly angered him as he realized that stagnation draws disaster.
The Circle of Evil
Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and perpetrator alike, by all who learn about it at whatever remove. Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity. It is self-perpetuating upon itself – a barbarous form of incest. Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred.
The Apoccrypha of Muad’Dib – Chapter 16
Context: The statement comes from a book of the Muad’Dib.
What the Quote Means: It explains the endless circle of evil.
Why It Was Said: The Muad’Dib talks about how evil births more evil in a circle that leads to only destruction.
Frank Herbert tries to explain how to let go. He explains that continuous evil never solves anything, and it only creates more conflict that will never cease in the future.
Control
If I always behave with propriety, no matter what it costs me to suppress my own desires, then that is the measure of me. Such is the essence of self-control.
Stilgar – Chapter 17
Context: Stilgar teaches Leto II Atreides the duality of self-control.
What the Quote Means: It explains that self-control can make someone lose their humanity.
Why It Was Said: Stilgar made this quote to explain to Leto that one should express oneself sometimes.
Self-control is a virtue that becomes an incredible asset to whoever possesses it. Frank Herbert uses “Children of Dune” to explain that no matter the circumstance or situation, the best weapon to utilize is not violence but restraint. The quote also deciphers that one should not always restrain oneself as too much self-control could lead to loss of individuality.
The Curse of Prescience
Once your father confided in me that knowing the future too well was to be locked into that future to the exclusion of any freedom to change.
Stilgar – Chapter 17
Context: Stilgar explains to Leto the disadvantages of seeing the future.
What the Quote Means: It explains the futility of seeing the future.
Why It Was Said: Stilgar warned Leto II against following in his father’s footsteps, as seeing the future could destroy him.
“Children of Dune” showed the problems of trying to see and alter the future. It explained how it is almost impossible to change what one sees as the future has a way of bending one to its will.
A Timeline of Humanity
Humankind periodically goes through a speedup of its affairs, thereby experiencing the race between the renewable vitality of the living and the beckoning vitiation of decadence. In this periodic race, any pause becomes luxury. Only then can one reflect that all is permitted; all is possible.
The Apocrypha of Muad’Dib – Chapter 43
Context: The Muad’Dbi talks about human history and its issues.
What the Quote Means: It explains that humanity keeps fighting itself and rebuilding without learning anything from previous conflicts.
Why It Was Said: The Muad’Dib realized humanity has never changed since its early days.
Human history contains endless conflict and destruction. However, even with more advancement, our species fail to learn from past mistakes. The quote explains that humans only learn in insignificance.
